Ferris Aircraft


Ferris Aircraft, also known as Ferris Air, is an aerospace, defense, and later airline company featured in the DC Comics universe. It is owned and founded by Carl Ferris and run by businesswoman Carol Ferris, who is the employer of test pilot Hal Jordan until he is recruited by the Green Lantern Corps.

Fictional history

Ferris Aircraft is a top aviation corporation in the United States working on advanced aircraft and experimental aviation concepts. It is one of the largest employers in Coast City, California. Ferris Air was a long time employer of Hal Jordan, who would later become Green Lantern. It was a Ferris plane that exploded taking the life of test pilot Martin Jordan, Hal's father.
Carl Ferris and Conrad Bloch were friends since childhood, he shared the dream of creating a business together, Ferris-Bloch Air-Cargo, Ltd. Ferris was a business man, Bloch a pilot. Together they became profitable against the odds. However, as time went on, Ferris was constantly working, building up the business while Bloch played around, seeing many women and drinking.
The company was a leader in the industry but it also had legal problems. This was due to Bloch's alcoholism. Carl Ferris ended his partnership with Bloch.
Due to declining health Carl had left the everyday operations to Carol Ferris his daughter, but the company was almost bankrupt. She spent the next few years battling to keep the business afloat.
An alien peace officer named Abin Sur of the Green Lantern Corps crash lands in the middle of the California desert close to Ferris Aircraft. As he lay dying, he commands his power ring to seek out a worthy successor. Test pilot Hal Jordan is examining a flight simulator when a corona of green light envelops him, pulling him along with the simulator to the spot of Abin Sur's crashed vessel. Abin Sur tells Hal that the power of the ring selected him to take on the role of the Green Lantern. Hal agrees to accept the responsibility of wielding the ring in the cause of justice, and with that, Abin Sur passes away. Hal Jordan is now Green Lantern.
Carol was kidnapped in a New York City hotel and without a representative of Ferris Aircraft appearing in Washington D.C., the governmental panel assumed Ferris offered no contest to their decision. Citing the record number of accidents at Ferris Aircraft, it was decided all government contracts with Ferris Aircraft would be cancelled. Back in Ferris Aircraft's Coast City facilities, a series of bombs were detonated. The testing facilities were totalled.
The company had to deal with saboteurs such as Demolition Team hired by Bloch and his sons, but Green Lantern has intervened and helped battle the threat.
Ferris Aircraft is one of the companies providing sponsorship to the superhero team The Conglomerate. The other sponsors included American Steel, Dante Foods, Dupree Chemical, LexCorp, S.T.A.R. Labs, Ovel Oil, Pax Entertainment, Stagg Enterprises.
Carol later changed the outlook of the business by developing aircraft for the Blackhawk Squadron. It was with Carol's influence that the company went in a new direction creating FerrisAir, with a fleet of commercial airliners.

In other media

Television